Consumer group blames boycott on ignorance
DARIEN, Conn. - A
national grassroots con
sumer group, in an effort to
better inform the public on
issues relating to consumer
prices, says the meat
boycotts of 1973 contributed
to today’s beef shortages and
that any such organized
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boycott now shows “con
siderable ignorance of the
ways of the meat' market
place. The Consumer Alert
Council, headquartered
here, explains that cattle
cycles are about five years
in duration and that the
shortages experienced now
are a result of too many
boycott headlines in 1973.
The 'consumer group
issued the following
statement:
In response to rising beef
prices, several New York
consumer leaders are at
tempting to stimulate
organized consumer
boycotts.
There is little doubt that
consumers are individually
reacting to the climbing cost
of beef, as well as other food
products. As shoppers make
economic decisions and
move alternately between
beef, poultry, pork, and
meatless meals the market
is already behaving
predictably.
The meat industry can be
expected to react predic
tably too. It will register the
response from consumers,
and both supply and prices
will find their appropriate
levels. Before New York
consumers add their support
to ill conceived ‘organized’
' meat boycotts, they would do
well to analyze just what the
long-range consequences of
such action would be.
For we can’t deny the fact
that the last publicized beef
boycott in the East was a
contributing factor in the
beef shortages and related
higher prices we are facing
today!
People who grow beef for
consumption try to an
ticipate the market some
two to five years in advance.
They are apt to and do in fact
overreact to organized
boycotts of their product.
Like investors on Wall
Street, cattlemen respond
psychologically rather than
logically to market fluc
tuations. Planned reduc
tions, as in organized
boycotts during 1973, cause
cattlemen to cut back much
farther on their herds than
they ordinarily wouldhave.
Though most consumers
didn’t participate in the last
beef boycott; cattlemen,
believing they might, held
back on breeding.
Since cattle breeding and
raising are, subject to
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Way 19,1979
biological cycles and
timetables, there is nothing
increased demand (or lower
prices) can do to hasten beef
production. Biological beef
cycles are subject to five
years no matter what 'the
demand.
Today’s shortages are
evidence of the cattle in
dustry’s ,“response to the
organized beef boycott.”
Principally the publicity
given that boycott made the
action look more widespread
than was actually reflected
in purchasing cutbacks by
shoppers.
Some things are better left
, unorganized ... letting the
market and independent
action by consumers in the
purchase of beef is one of
them.
Cattlemen are exceedingly
reluctant to invest borrowed
money and years of breeding
in feeding animals that are
! not going to bring a market
profit.
The solution?
Individual action, rather
than organized and
publicized boycotting, is just
as effective in bringing
prices down and for less
likely to cause imbalance,
overreaction, and wild
fluctuations in supply.
Mr. Ratner, NYC Con-
Landowners urged to
eradicate multiflora rose
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -
Rodman Myers, master of
the Maryland State Grange,
has issued a statement
urging landowners to control
multiflora roses. The next
two weeks, multiflora rose
bushes will be blooming and
birds will carry seeds to new
areas.
The Md. State Grange has
policy for several years
concerning this spreading
menace. Myers said
“Landowners should use
bulldozers, and farm tractor
loaders to uproot the rose
bushes. Tordon, a pellet type
chemical can be used as a
band treatment to kill these
bushes. Thousands of acres
of good farmland is being
ATTENTION
FARMERS... |
FREE
ESTIMATES
ON RODENT
CONTROL
RODENTS carry diseases which
can endanger the health of your
flocks. Your business is raising
the flocks. Ours is protecting
them.
-> ' '5Ss V' :
Since 1928
Pest control is too importarft
to trust to smyone else
sumer Affairs Com-
and Ms. Pooler,
executive director NY State
Consumer Protection Board,
are showing considerable
ignorance of the ways of the
meat marketplace.
Meat is a prized dietary
component in this country
and prices, though higher
today, are nowhere near
what our Japanese friends
are paying $25.00 a pound
for steak!
No doubt Mr. Ratner and
Ms. Pooler are seeking ways
to help consumers. This
should start with a firm
understanding of the
mechanisms in the
marketplace that truly bring
about lower prices and
enhanced supply.
They need to know, for
instance, that a study
carried out for the National
Academy of Sciences turned
up the fact that hamburger
meat in this country is
presently affected by 41,000
regulations, 200 legal
statutes, and 111,000
precedent setting court
actions which have boosted
the cost of hamburger for
consumers by 8 to 11 cents a
pound.
A little deregulation and a
lot less headline could truly
reduce the cost of meat.
taken over and if landowners
do not start taking this
matter to heart, many
valuable acres will be lost”
Myers, a dairy fanner,
said he bought taro farms
that bad multiflora roses and
finally got rid of them by
spraying and bulldozing, and
now farms much of this land.
245-T, an excellent spray
chemical, was recently
suspended until further
notice.
As farmers continue to
lose farmland to highways,
shopping centers and
housing developments,
people must put a stop to the
spreading of multiflora rose,
Myers stated.
1278 Loop Rd.
Lancaster, Pa. 17604
717-397-3721
19